There had to be a mistake.
After a terribly long and very confusing day of classes which included getting lost a handful of times in the castle and landing herself detention. Nel stood outside the office of the Head of her House after a long day of classes.
She still remembered what she had said to Professor McGonagall, the Headmistress, the night before.
"T-There has to be a mistake," she said looking horrified as she addressed the professor.
"The hat does not make mistakes Ms. Saintday," she answered curtly.
She knocked on the heavy door waiting for the professor to invite her in.
"Come in."
Snape's office was exactly what you would expect the one of a Potion's Master to be. It had a particular order in which dozens of vials, boxes, and jaws containing ingredients and other substances were scattered all over the room. On his desk was a stack of scrolls that Nel could only assumed to be student essays. He had been the only professor to assign a ten-inch parchment on the first day of school. He had also assigned her detention for not being able to answer one of the questions he shot at her during his lecture. Something that amused her peers to no end.
"Professor McGonagall has expressed to me that you have some concerns about having been sorted into my house," he said bringing both of his elbows to rest on his desk, he pressed his knotted hands against his lips looking down at the girl before him with his black eyes. "Why is that?"
He looked angry.
"You see sir," She began feeling a little small under his gaze. "I'm very brave. The hat must've made a mistake," She looked down at her green tie and robes. "I just think I'd be a better fit in another house. Maybe I'd be a better Gryffindor? I almost feel as if the Sorting Hat didn't even take my opinion into consideration."
Not to mention all of her pureblood house mates had begun tormenting her due to her blood status, or lack of one.
"You don't look very brave right now," Snape said cooly. Making her self-consciously squirm under his gaze. "Recklessness, ignorance and presumptuousness? Are these traits that you wish to associate yourself with Ms. Saintday? He spat.
"No Sir," She responded tilting her chin down feeling ashamed. "Lift your head foolish girl," the professor spoke harshly. He seemed to have been taken this personally. Hesitantly she lifted it, standing a little taller as to not to seem weak.
"I will not have you floundering in someone's chair when confronted Ms. Saintday. Being in this House- being in Slytherin is an honor that should be worn like a badge of pride. This is a privilege that few get in their lives. Tell me Ms. Saintday, what are the traits of a Slytherin?"
"Ambition, cunning and resourcefulness, sir," she responded looking at him in the eye attempting to seem tougher than she really was.
"Good, now tell me, where you not cunning and resourceful when playing that childish trick on Ms. Parkinson and the others in the train? You must've gone out of your way to ensure that your plan worked out to your convenience. Correct?"
Her eyes went wide. She was expecting Snape to scold her or to take away House Points, but he did neither. Knowing her chamber mate, Parkinson had probably come to snitch on her already.
"And if I recall correctly you were arrogantly boasting about becoming the 'best witch in your class' back in Diagon Alley. A trait which can be most likely interpreted to be ambition."
Elowen sat in silence. There was no use in arguing with Snape. His arguments were valid. He might've been biased in his opinion regarding Gryffindor House but that was to be expected.
"Now, get out of my office and stop wasting my time with such foolish concerns. I expect a ten-inch parchment on the History of Slytherin House for your detention, and don't let me find you with your head lowered for anyone Ms. Saintday, understood?" Snape said coldly.
She groaned at the mentioning of writing yet another essay. Despite the professor's icy tone. Showing no weakness and being tough seemed to come with the package that came with being a Slytherin.
Without another word he dismissed her.
Xxxxx
Elowen returned to the Slytherin Common room with her head hung low. The worst part of it all was that she had no way of contacting Lucy. Sure, she could've tried to send an owl to her but communication between Muggles and Wizards like that was prohibited. Not to mention the fact that there were no functional telephones in Hogwarts.
"Cottonmouth," she sighed the password to the portrait and walked through it. A scattered amount of Slytherin were in the common room either hanging out or working on their homework together.
The common room was like a snake pit, underground, underwater, with dark leather, wood and fabrics of all sorts of emerald hues. The most comforting part about it were the dim green lights that illuminated the room. The little light that came in through the dark windows reflected the shadows of mysterious water creatures that inhabited the lake.
"Back so suddenly?" Pansy Parkinson turned to shoot her a nasty look. "I'd figure Professor Snape would've dealt with you the proper way."
The girls around her sniggered at her comment. Potions class had been really embarrassing today. Snape had bombarded her with questions she did not know the answer to. He really hadn't been kidding when he had said he had given her some extracurricular material for her to read.
During potions class Draco Malfoy and his friends had been making means jokes at her. When Nel snapped back, she interrupted Snape's lesson which had her landed in detention with him. Sometimes she couldn't help but feel like the Potions Master was purposely picking on her.
Pansy Parkinson was that girl with the short black hair that Nel had tricked into drinking toad tea back in the train. She quickly learned that she was a snotty, pureblood fanatic and thought she was better than everybody because her father imported and exported wand making supplies from England to other parts of Europe and Asia. It was also very obvious that she had some type of infatuation with Malfoy. She wasted no time in bombarding Nel with questions over dinner constantly stating the fact that she was brought up in a muggle orphanage and didn't have a single galleon to her name.
Nel stopped next to the black sofa arm were Parkinson was sitting and without even giving her a second glance stretched out an arm and roughly pushed her to the floor.
"Hey!" She protested from the carpeted floor. Nel didn't even see when Pansy's wand shot out a green flash of light at her back.
"Slugulus Eructo!" She hexed.
Nel felt... funny. Sick was probably a better word for it. Her skin took a sallow complexion and her hands reached to her upset stomach.
The Slytherins leaned in eyed peeled waiting for the spell to take effect.
The girl reeled backwards slightly. She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. Instead she gave a loud belch and a nasty green slug dripped out of her mouth and to the carpeted floor.
The common room was a laughing riot as she horribly gagged on the slime. Eyes growing watery from the horrible feeling.
Pansy was laughing so hard she was also clutching her stomach. The others followed in suit also cackling madly.
She raised her wand her only weapon and casted the only spell she knew, the one she had learned today. Lumos, but nothing happened. This only made them howl louder.
Furious, sick, and completely mortified with her eyes watering she considered running out of the room. But she didn't.
Pansy didn't see it coming. Before she knew it she was pinned to the ground with Nel's weight on top of her. She glued to her hands to her sides. The orphan smiled wickedly as she looked down at Pansy with vile intent.
She had brought this on herself.
"No! No! No!" Pansy cried out pleading, turning her head as far away from her as possible. Malfoy and Blaise Zabini were on the edge of their seats watching from a nearby chess game. Even Theodore Nott had lowered his book and was staring at the scene in disbelief. Other girls in the room looked disgustedly horrified. Daphne Greengrass looked like she was about to faint.
Nel smirked, she could feel a big slimy one coming. She belched several slugs on Pansy. The girl squirmed and shrieked at the slugs that landed on her. Pansy cried as a string of slimy saliva dripped on her. Elowen cackling maliciously before she felt an arm wrap around her neck in a chokehold and attempt to pull her off the girl.
Bullstrode.
Millicent Bullstrode was a large girl who as far as Nel knew, her only positive quality was that she had a cute cat named Hokey. She didn't say or do much, being more of a quiet follower she tailed after Parkinson.
Pansy continued screaming as Nel barfed as many slugs as she could on her, covering her in slime and slugs from head to toe. Millicent pulled with all of her strength until a booming voice interrupted.
"What is the meaning of this?!" One of the Slytherin prefects rushed into the room. She looked angrier than grossed out by the disgusting scene. With a flick of her wand all three girls pulled apart from each other.
The prefect wasn't patient in demanding an explanation. "You two, Snape's office with me now!" She pointed at Bullstrode and Parkinson. "And you..." Her eyes narrowed at the sick girl. "To Madame Pomfrey, now."
Nel vomited a slug and painfully moaned in disgust. Blaise and Draco were still laughing loudly at the scene.
"Malfoy you seem to be enjoying yourself. Escort Saintday to the infirmary," she barked. Her expression absolutely livid. Draco's mocking face immediately dropped. Blaise laughed at his friend and slapped his arm. "Pipe down Zabini unless you want to accompany Malfoy and Saintday for a walk down slug avenue."
The sick girl would've been lying if she said she didn't need Malfoy to ger to the Hospital Wing. Besides Malfoy's protesting and groaning the two made way to the West Lower Floor. Nel stopping to throw up her guts every couple of steps. Her complexion chalky, eyes watery. She made a mental note never to consume jello ever again in her life.
From her peripheral vision she saw Malfoy edging closer to her.
"Stay away from me," she raised a hand to keep him at a distance and glared at him. If he got any closer, she wouldn't' have a problem projectile vomiting a slug in his direction.
"Hn," He leaned against the wall crossing his arms over his chest. "Suits you. That's what you deserve for making us drink that disgusting tea. Slugbreath."
That's it.
True to her word she turned and vomited a slug which landed on his emerald green jumper. "Ugh! Yuck!" He grimaced flicking it off his person.
She smirked in his direction. "Strange how I'm starting to feel better." She brushed past him.
Draco looked at her in disbelief. How was it possible to dislike someone so much in a day?
"Disgusting!" He exclaimed in a whiny breath.
"I know," she shot back with an unladylike groan as a slug nastily rolled down her chin.
"I don't mean the slugs," he wrinkled his nose. "I mean you," he shot back upset.
She turned to him angrily and grabbed his arms tightly pulling him close getting ready to aim a fat one straight at his face. "Get your filthy Mudblood hands off me!"
"Stop calling me that!" She said angrily still not knowing the severity of the slur he used against her.
A loud gasp made them both snap their heads away from each other's fronts. They both turned to see a very horrified Madame Pomfrey looking at the two. "Mr. Malfoy! Ms. Saintday! What is the meaning on this?" She scolded. It seemed like she hadn't heard their conversation.
"I was asked to escort Saintday here," Draco pushed Nel's hands from his body. "And now I'm done," he scowled in her direction before stalking off to return to the Slytherin Common Room. She seethed glaring at his retreating back.
"Slugs! And on the first day..." Pomfrey sighed irritate. "Come along dear," She said placing a hand on the girl's shoulder keeping a stoic expression as she puked a couple of slugs out. "On the first day... And I don't even have any Treacle fudge for you."
Pomfrey had a terrible feeling it wouldn't be the first or last time that she found Elowen Saintday on one of her hospital beds. The Matron made the ill girl sit on a bed and gave her a basinet and some bubbly lime beverage to keep the nausea away. She said the hex should pass in a couple of hours and advised Nel to spend the night in the room in case she still felt sick. Sometime later the Matron retreated to her private chamber leaving Nel alone in the spacious room.
She had been holding it together so well but being alone in the austere room. At night. Having no way to contact Lucy or anyone to talk to... Nel hugged the wooden basinet close to her torso more for comfort as she spat another slug out. Tears she had been holding all day slipped down her face from the nausea and mostly from the humiliation of having been spitting slugs out before her housemates. Not only that but her embarrassing faint attempt to strike Parkinson with a pathetic Lumos...
She sniffled, crying, and hiccupping through nasal breaths.
Laughter could be heard from the corridor approaching the entrance of the Hospital Ward. She gasped lightly and furiously wiped away her tears.
The door opened and she saw two figures shushing each other entering the hospital ward. The figures stepped in and they initially did not notice the girl that was sitting on the bed. They basically tiptoed in and began raiding Madame Pomfrey's cabinet taking few things, just enough so that she would not notice.
"Looks like she's out of Treacle fudge," one said to the other.
Weak sniffling filled the dark room and the two boys turned back to look at a pair of dark eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness. They saw a first year Slytherin girl weakly sniffling and hugging what looked like a bucket close to her chest.
The Gryffindors looked at each other for a moment before approaching the edge of the bed.
"I didn't know Slytherins could cry," one of them spoke with particular jest.
"I didn't know Slytherins had tear ducts at all." The other added.
"I-I'm not crying!" She said defensively feeling her face burning from the embarrassment before a nasty slug made its way out of her throat in a nasty belch. This was mortifying and in front of these two boys...
She looked down avoiding their prying gazes.
"Eat slugs," The one said clicking his tongue, stating the hex she was under. "Rather nasty one," the other spoke.
Looking at them, recognizing the fiery red hair she realized they looked awfully familiar.
Of course! She'd seen them at King's Cross with Ron and his family. They were probably his older brothers.
"I take it those gits at Slytherin haven't been very welcoming, have they?"
She shook her head slightly, eyes still lowered in shame.
"I deserve it," she spat some slime into the bucket. "I did make them drink that toad tea."
She wasn't expecting them to react so excitedly to that statement. "That was you!" One exclaimed before laughing loudly. "You're the girl Ron told us about!" the other added. "That was bloody brilliant!" They laughed.
"Tell you what," one of the redheads said. "Everybody knows House Slytherin is filled with pompous gits, but anybody that makes Malfoy croak outta be decent." She arched an eyebrow at this. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking George?" One looked at the other with a mischievous look. "Read my mind Fred," The other said with a peculiar glint in his eye. The twins split and both took a side next to the girl. She looked back and forth between them confused.
"Your wand?" One said. She couldn't tell which one of them was Fred and which one was George. Diving into her pocket she pulled out her wand.
"Alright, we're going to teach you a very illegal spell." One whispered wickedly draping an arm over her shoulders as if he had known her his entire life. The other did the same.
"Use it wisely. Can't let those gits have the upper hand. Can we?"
"Here's a word of warning, it only works on fatheads," one of the twins sniggered.
"By the way I'm George," one said pointing a thumb at himself. "And I'm Fred," the other introduced himself. "Just kidding!" They suddenly said in unison before she could introduce herself. And they once again introduced themselves by the others name before laughing at her confused expression.
"Call me Nel."